Title: Overload

Synopsis: Marley Rose has a lot on her plate; her half-brother Ryder's having trouble keeping up at school, Kitty won't miss an opportunity to get a few digs in, Wade keeps stealing her bra's, Jake's just blatantly ignoring her now and, perhaps, most curiously the sexy blonde from Glee club just won't leave her alone

"RYDER GET UP" Marley shouted up the stairs early one morning attempting to wake up her half-brother. It was just the two of them in the house alone for the next month as Millie had gone to care for her ill mother on the other side of the country. Marley was used to things like this happening to her, since their dad walked out on them when they were kids it hadn't been Ryder who'd become the man of the house it had been her. Not that Ryder would ever admit that, and though he managed to complete most of the practical tasks around the house all the other stuff fell on Marley. And by other stuff, she meant keeping her troublesome younger than her by two and half weeks half-brother on the straight and narrow. Not that Ryder was a bad kid or anything, but he had issues which haunted him day in day out which made him loose his temper pretty quickly. There had been bad times in the past, for the both of them, and Marley had hoped the move to McKinley High for sophomore year would help Ryder forget his past, it seemed to be working but Marley could never be quite sure about what was happening in her twins messed up little head. "RYDER, SERIOUSLY WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE. ARTIE'S COMING TO GIVE US A LIFT"

"Artie?" Ryder shouted back down the stairs "Can the dude even drive?"

"Yeah, they did something to his car which means the brake pedals are next to him and can be used by hand" Marley shouted back, her voice was getting hoarse which wasn't good as she needed to do a solo in Glee club later that day "Anyway, I'm not having this conversation shouting up and down the stairs will you please just get back down here". About five minutes Ryder made his way downstairs fully dressed to Marley's delight – he'd usually wait until the last possible second to put his shirt on. Artie arrived five minutes later and they barely made it to school in time as both Artie and Ryder demanded they slowed the car down when they went passed the cheerleaders practicing. Marley rolled her eyes and turned away from the girls, she didn't need to see Kitty Wilde until she absolutely had too. Ever since Jake Puckerman had dumped Kitty when she had been mean to Marley the cheerleader had just had it out for Marley, belittling and bullying her at every available opportunity and revelling in doing so.

"Right, and what're we going to promise not to do today" Marley stopped Ryder just as he was about to head off to see his friends (well, friend)

"I'm not going to attack Stoner Brett with the fire extinguisher again" Ryder said in a monotone fashion. There had been an unfortunate incident a few weeks ago when Stoner Brett had made a sexual remark towards Marley in the corridor as she had been walking passed him with Ryder. Ryder in his protective brother mode immediately jumped into action defending his sister by forcefully removing a fire extinguisher from a nearby wall and covered Stoner Brett head to toe in foam.

"And why" Marley knew she was acting like a bossy elder sister, but she was because she needed to be. She was the only one who Ryder would ever listen too

"Because to do so would make me a menace to society…. More so" Ryder replied with a fake smile before flouncing off and going to meet his friend. Marley did worry about Ryder, he'd always found it hard to make friends but since they'd come to McKinley he'd actually been making new friends and socialising a lot more. Marley just hoped that it would not be too much for him. Watching him until he was out of her sight Marley sighed and made her way over to her locker where she found her best friend Wade/Unique waiting her. Today, she was greeted by Unique

"Hey girl" she said as Marley approached "So, I was watching The Real Housewives last night and something struck me. Kitty is one of them. Or will be one of them, one day. She'll be one of those women who never grow out of being a high school biatch. Whereas you and I will grow up and marry respectable men and becomes pillars of the community"

"Great" Marley said. Unique bemused her most of the time. Marley was so tired and just wanted to have a nice quiet day free of any drama, minimal tears and Ryder not getting into any trouble with any people of authority. But as Kitty Wilde broke off from her cheerleading friends and approached Marley it became evident that today was just not going to be one of those days. Marley gulped as the blonde approached her

"Hey tubs, Aretha" Kitty said in a mocking voice as she approached them "Marley, I just wanted to come over and let you know that as much as you think you're pulling off that… is it a jacket? I don't know kinds look like a curtain to me…. Anyway, you look like a fat Shelley Duvall". And with that Kitty was gone, it wasn't up to her best admittedly but it still affected Marley. She knew that she wasn't fat, but it was becoming increasingly hard to love herself and her body when Kitty took every opportunity to burn her for it. As the bell rang Marley bid Unique farewell and headed to her homeroom where she would be seeing Jake. A small spring may have stated in Marley's step as she thought of seeing him again. Marley had liked Jake from the get go, he seemed to like her as well but ever since he'd dumped Kitty he'd been ignoring Marley and was one step away from not even acknowledging her existence. In the three weeks since it had happened Jake had smiled at her three times, caught her eye four times and asked her to pass the ketchup at lunch one day. Marley knew she was being pathetic counting how many times they'd interacted but she was head over heels for Jake and he had this talent for turning her into a pathetic girly mess

"Hey, have you seen Jake today" Marley asked Marissa, the pretty blonde who sat next to her in homeroom

"No babe I haven't" Marissa replied not looking up from her phone that she had been texting on "And can I be honest with you Marley?" Marley nodded "I know we don't really know eachother very well, and we don't really interact outside of these fifteen minutes every morning but seriously dude give it up with Jake. He's clearly not interested in you, personally I can't really see why, but he's not and you just need to accept it because believe it or not Marley, there's a ton of guys at this school gagging to be with you"

Marley wanted to take Marissa's advice, she wanted to believe that there were a hundred guys who wanted to be with her but she just couldn't let go of her hope surrounding Jake. He'd seemed to like her so much, they'd even almost kissed once and once he'd dumped Kitty it seemed logical to Marley that he would have asked her out straight afterwards. But he didn't. He didn't even speak to her now and it was just as much annoying as it was confusing and heart-breaking.

Marley sighed as the bell for first period rang, the day had got off to an average start which was Marley's least favourite kind. At least if her day had started out being really shitty at least for the rest of the day she would know to expect bad things, but average meant it was all up in the air. And Marley hated that. She hated uncertainty. Which is why she was so obsessed with the Jake situation, she hated not knowing what he was thinking or why he was ignoring her. If he didn't want to be with her, he need only say and she'd be heartbroken but at least she would know and would be out of her constant feelings of confusion. Marley headed to Glee club, her heart heavy though as she saw Ryder engaging in yet another fight she got an idea of how the rest of her day would pan out and it was not looking good